One of the biggest challenges for any corporate in today’s market is retaining talent. Globalization, multiple startups, and a number of job offers at hand, Employers become very vulnerable to high attrition. One or more effective reasons of job dissatisfaction could create a permanent vacancy in the organization, and eventually problems surface.

There are no hard and fast rules that convey or assure 100% retention of employees. However, following are some tips that can be followed, which will definitely inhibit increasing rates of attrition in your organization:

1. Thorough research of the salary level: It would be rather foolish to offer a low package to someone and expect high talent out of the employee. Even if such a candidate joins on a low package it could be on a temporary basis and the candidate is likely to leave as soon as he finds a better opportunity. In case a financial reward cannot be provided, some other non-monetary benefits could be offered to keep the candidate motivated.

2. Training front line supervisors: It is critical to have a good Manager-Employee relationship as it affects employee job satisfaction. Hence, it becomes very important to train managers with supervisory and people management skills.

3. Well defined roles and responsibilities: Ambiguous job roles enhance the rate of attrition.

4. Growth plans: It is important to share future growth plans with workers as this keeps them motivated in the long run.

5. Employee satisfaction survey/interview: The best way to keep an eye on employee happiness and satisfaction is by conducting satisfaction surveys or interviews so that grievances can be constantly tackled.

6. Foster an environment of teamwork: It takes effort to build an effective team, but the outcome is greater productivity, better use of resources, improved customer service and increased morale.

Even the most scientific methodology, a long drawn out search for the best talent or a huge pile of resumes, wouldn’t ensure the right hiring decision. Recruiters juggle between editing job descriptions, posting jobs, scheduling interviews, and a lot more. It, therefore, becomes a challenge to focus on hiring the right talent in the long run.

Following are few points that can be focused upon while hiring, in order to simplify the whole process and getting the best talent on board:

1. Top desirable skills in a candidate. When a job description is drafted, focusing on the top 3 critical areas is advisable rather than concentrating on all of them. This will help narrow down on a few number of candidates, those who deserve to get shortlisted.

2. Top reasons why someone would want to be hired to the position. The motivation that lasts more is position specific rather than company specific. As a result, before advertising the company, it is important to advertise the nature of job opening being offered and accordingly shortlist candidates who are fine with the profile.

3. Top reasons why someone would want to join the organization. The only way to have an employer brand is indeed by being a great place to work! Some companies need not look beyond their logo. Google is one such company and this happens because Google has been one of the top innovators and also one of the key trendsetters, enhancing their brand, visibility and demand among candidates. No wonder they get the best talent from all over the world.

Focusing on these three areas when making any decisions involving talent acquisition will result in improvements in the quality of shortlisted resumes. Go ahead and make a wiser decision!

It is not just about mentioning deadlines to the teammates and tasking them with work, but being a manager includes wider range of activities like motivating employees, leading all of them towards a similar goal,  or addressing a large group of people looking up to you for answers. The list goes on. Moving up the ladder is not as easy as it seems. Along with the accolades and the pride comes the effort and turmoil. To quote Eleanor Roosevelt, “With freedom, comes responsibility.” Therefore, it is of utmost importance to keep in mind the hurdles and at the same time be enterprising and highly efficient in handling the tasks. Following are some tips that could be helpful for a newly promoted manager:

1. Meeting new goals with already available resource. It is always advisable to identify your own abilities and weaknesses. These can then be matched with your new goals to help bridge the gap with required abilities.

2. Be in good terms with team. It is very important to remember that your strength is your team and it is they who make you the manager. As a result, it is very crucial to maintain a good relationship with your team. One way of doing it is by making yourself available to them so that you come across as a friendly and approachable manager.

3. Appreciate them time to time. Your employees must have knowledge about when they are performing well and when they are not. Hence it is advisable to appreciate their good performance as and when time allows, simultaneously pin point on the fields they lack in. This helps them with their future performance. It would be pertinent to remember that their weaknesses be pointed out only in private.

4. Delegate work. This needs to be done keeping in mind your employees’ expertise. Having a good interpersonal relationship with your employees would enhance your ability to delegate.

5. Encourage creativity. It is a must to encourage thinking and brainstorming amongst employees. Giving them ownership helps them explore their abilities and overcome boundaries.

The senior manager in company A had a habit of talking loud. Whenever angry on an employee, the reaction would begin with a loud voice with unpleasant language.

This, eventually, created a rift amongst the team members and not only was the organizational climate a dysfunctional one, but also the employees suffered from high degrees of job insecurity, job dissatisfaction. In no time, this took a toll on the productivity of the employees till the management decided to look into the matter and bring about organizational changes.

After conducting an open ended interview, experts reached the conclusion that the mannerism of the senior manager was causing insecurity in the subordinates, which would gradually lead to rather bigger issues.

Talking about mannerism brings me to the topic “Office etiquettes”. How many of us would have actually followed the etiquettes or common manners that would be penned down in a normal organization book or rule book?

Do we even care to go through it?

Well there are reasons why they are so specifically mentioned after all. The above would not have happened if the knowledge was shared and followed by all.

Following are some tips that would help you maintain proper workplace etiquettes:

1. Communication is an important part of mannerism. It is sometimes not about what you communicate but how you communicate. Keeping the same in mind, all kinds of communication should be handled.
2. Meetings are again a space wherein proper workplace etiquettes should be maintained. Little things like putting phone on silent mode during meetings, attending only urgent calls, etc. are some basic rules that one fails to follow. Additional inputs would be reaching on meetings on time, dressing up properly for a meeting, avoiding multi-tasking, etc.
3. Last but not the least, showing up at work when sick does not add to the productivity but might demotivate few coworkers. As a result, it is always advisable to stay back when sick.

There are pros and cons of being a good manager. Not to mention obvious advantages like hike on pay, status, recognition etc.  Managing each and everyone in the team to suit business goals is a tough challenge that comes as a byproduct of promotion or being a good manager.

The fingers in our hand do not measure the same. Similarly not all employees in the company/team will have the same level of talent, experience, skills and capabilities. This, instead, makes the team richer and more fun to deal with. Every person in the team will have their separate skills and it undoubtedly would require a good and talented manager to discover those dormant individual skill sets. Employees who have potential to grow but deny excelling on their average skill sets and delivering before time in spite of capacity to do the same indicates a problem needing an immediate remedy.

Following are certain tips that could be used to utilize the employees to the fullest:

1. Knowledge of their goal in life:

Not everyone has the same goal in life. It would not be new to find one of the employees performing at his best to become the CEO of the company and the other meeting deadlines just to save up for a future business he has planned on opening. Bottom line is that being a manager, it is a crucial part of the job to recognize the goals of the employees and knowing what matters to them. This helps in knowing their boundaries, ways in which they can be motivated. In fact, respecting their boundaries can transform their experience of work altogether.

2. What do they expect?

Many a times, employees are unable to voice their opinions. Job dissatisfaction is a very strong demotivating factor and creates attrition in a company. In order to avoid such issues, it is important to have knowledge of the employee’s motivation. It might be salary related or organizational climate related. Both are equally important.

3. Areas to be worked upon and incentives:

Nothing is better than appreciating employees for each and everything that they do. It is advisable to reinforce good deeds and subtly put across the areas in which they will have to improve and work. An incentive as simple as a smile and a nod of appreciation could do wonders.

Finally, one thing that needs to be kept in mind is that companies have a normal distribution of talent. Not everyone would be excellent workers and having all excellent performers as a target is an improbable solution. Instead, managing the present lot is indeed a good idea and proves that the manager is indeed a good and capable one!

Tired of doing all the work by yourself?

Tired of being the most talented one AND the most overburdened worker in the team?

Tired of staying back late at office and not having any “Me” time?

All you have to do is learn the art of making others work.

Even Superman needs help and support and hence there is no shame in asking for assistance. In corporate environment, it is called Delegation of work.

Most of the times, you might not be willing to delegate work. Ever wondered why?

Simple! It is way easier to design the brochure and write the content yourself than explaining someone how to do it and getting that person on the same page.

In that case, who generates future ideas and plan of action if you are the one who is coming up with fresh plans and simultaneously executing it as well?

This is when you definitely need to delegate work!

Delegation is a win-win if done appropriately. Hence, here are few of the steps that can be taken in order to delegate tasks:

1. Bye bye ego!

Not only you need to let go of that little ego of yours but think logically. If the task is too much to handle for you, say it out loud and ask for help.

2. “I think he will offer some help soon.”

Absolutely not! People in corporate mostly do not have time to sense anything apart from thirst and hunger (many nowadays forget to eat and drink too), let alone realize assistance needs of a colleague. So go ahead, voice out the need yourself instead of expecting someone to volunteer.

3. Is he worth the trust?

That is a game you will have to play. Just focus on the mindset and goal. Once you can get the helper on the same page, you can get the ball rolling and it starts with a basic factor called Trust!

4. “Eat with your right hand, not the left!”

It is generally a bad thing to delegate work and expecting the person to follow the same process as you would. If the objective is to eat, a right handed person will use their right hand and the left handed will use the left. Your concern should be to meet the objective. Procedure can be decided by the helper. But of course, this does not stop you from suggesting and providing important tips.

5. “Come let me help”

Definitely be a good trainer and be ready to help as the helper might not be as skilled as you..

6. “Thank you!”

Never forget to appreciate the work and do mention your gratitude to your helper. A simple acknowledgement like “I am glad you did it” can create wonders!

Do you generally tend to face the following?

Low energy level and stamina; headache; stomach problems like constipation, nausea, loose motion, etc; muscle problems like aches, sores, stiffness, etc; high pressure, chest pains;  insomnia; amnesia; colds, infections; weight gain or loss; hair fall; loss of sexual drive and/or activity?

These can be attributed to something called Stress.

Stress may be defined as “a state of psychological and/or physiological imbalance resulting from the disparity between situational demand and the individual’s ability and/or motivation to meet those demands.”

Dr. Hans Selye, one of the leading authorities on the concept of stress, described stress as “the rate of all wear and tear caused by life.”

Stress can be positive or negative:

Stress is positive when the situation offers an opportunity for a person to gain something. It acts as a motivator for peak performance.

Stress is negative when a person faces social, physical, organizational and emotional problems.

“Workplace stress” as the term indicates,  is the harmful physical and emotional responses that can happen when there is a conflict between job demands on the employee and the amount of control an employee has over meeting these demands. In general, the combination of high demands in a job and a low amount of control over the situation can lead to stress.

Stress in the workplace can have many origins or come from one single event. It can impact on both employees and employers alike. As stated by the Canadian Mental Health Association:

Fear of job redundancy, layoffs due to an uncertain economy, increased demands for overtime due to staff cutbacks act as negative stressors. Employees who start to feel the “pressure to perform” can get caught in a downward spiral of increasing effort to meet rising expectations with no increase in job satisfaction. The relentless requirement to work at optimum performance takes its toll in job dissatisfaction, employee turnover, reduced efficiency, illness and even death. Absenteeism, illness, alcoholism, “petty internal politics”, bad or snap decisions, indifference and apathy, lack of motivation or creativity are all by-products of an over stressed workplace.

From: Canadian Mental Health Association, “Sources of Workplace Stress” Richmond, British Columbia.

What can be done to deal with Stress in that case?

Following are certain tips that often proves useful:

1)     Meditation

2)     Sound sleep

3)     Music therapy

4)     Holiday, reading, gaming and any other de-stressing activities

Not to forget, Employees without stress would be happy and in turn, they will be productive.

They claim to know the unknown, draw interpretations out of any flying object out there in the sky, discover loopholes in business operation systems- these are definitely not our day to day desk jobs and are in fact beyond our ambitions as they are not gauged successfully in our imaginations either!

That’s right; these are some of really unusual jobs that gain a lot of attention and are great when it comes to payment as well.

Scary, weird, adventurous, no matter what; these are definitely worth a read!

1. There are some who claim to be aware of the future and accordingly help people in making amends and modifications in their decision making.

They’d be the Psychics!

Definitely the kind of people we would go to for financial, emotional and personal reassurance during tough stages in life.

2. Ever wondered why your furry little friend goes gaga over pedigree? The credit goes to a human being who does the “not so nasty” job.

We have Pet Food Tasters who comment on the texture and quality of pet food, which ensures that your pet has a lovely time eating its fodder.

3. One of the many things that still fetches a lot of

attention are Unidentified Flying Objects or popularly known as UFOs.

For years now, the Men in Blacks and Mulder and Scully from X-files have portrayed how cool this job can be. As a matter of fact, Ufologists do exist, who earn their bread by researching on UFOs.

However, the “coolness” of the job is yet to be commented on.

4. Movies like The Exorcism of Emily Rose have been successfully in giving spine chills. As a matter of fact we do have some real life practitioners of this art who practice exorcism.

They are called the Exorcists.

5. Donald duck is better known for the unique and hilarious voice he had than the funny duck character he portrayed. All thanks to the Voice artist!

Have any of the above as your passion? Too scared to turn them into profession?

Think again. There are people out there who are already living their dreams!

Given a choice, which one would you select? EQ or IQ?

For several years (and probably more to come), Intelligence quotient or IQ, which is a measure of one’s mental abilities, has been almost the sole determiner of one’s output at school, college and especially workplace.

Having said that, this is what most of the job posts on any job portals nowadays demand:

That’s right. All of the aforementioned skills that have been highlighted are some emotional skills that recruiters would typically want from any candidate.

Does that mean IQ is not important?

Research suggests that once a person reaches his/her normal IQ threshold, it only remains 4 to 25% important in determining success in one’s career, while EQ takes over as the main factor.

Emotional intelligence quotient, better known as EQ, can be defined as the ability of a person to understand others’ and one’s own emotions and respond to it with validity and reliability. For example, we can imagine those people at workplace, who are simply used to working under a lot of stress and a different segment of people out there who succumb to even under low stress levels  altogether.

The difference lies in the emotional intelligence of people. All individuals have separate levels of threshold, and their behavior depends a lot on their emotional intelligence. Probably it will be safe to comment that in any companies, people who possess the talked about attribute are preferred compared to others who do not.

Doubtful? We have results to back ourselves up.

Evidently, a combination of average intelligence is still preferred over Superior intelligence with low people skills.

Therefore, being a candidate, how can you enhance your people skills?

Let’s make it brief and simple:-

1. Interact with coworkers and build relationships with them
2. Try having a positive attitude at work
3. Think over any problem that seems to bother you. It’s perhaps amazing how you can easily detach yourself from an issue that has been bothering your work life, just by taking some time off and pondering over it.
4. Have an internal focus of control and try finding out your shortcomings instead of blaming the rest for mistakes.
5. Going to a trip alone helps!

Last but not the least; did you know that happy workers are productive workers?

Employment engagement has become one of the most important factors for achieving overall success for an organization. In this dynamic economic environment, business heads understand the importance of high-performing employees for success and expansion. They know highly-engaged workers bring innovative ideas to the table, increase productivity and bottom-line performance, while lowering overall costs of resource hiring & retention of an organization. If your organization lacks in employee engagement here are few tips that can help to improve.

Engaged Leaders

To drive employment engagement, leaders must first demonstrate the spirit of engagement through their actions. Top leaderships behavior at a workplace influences a company’s culture and employees immensely. Senior leaders must demonstrate highly-engaged company culture spirit by exhibiting the company’s values.

Robust Communication

Industry leaders understand the critical role of communication in creating successful employment engagement at an organization. So they plan out effective communication plan that are transparent, which built trust among employees and increases employment engagement.

Encouraging Work Culture

Research says employees tend to perform better in a motivated work environment. Leaders alone cannot keep the employees motivated for long. They must create a motivational work culture with engaged workforce where employees can motivate each other to drive at innovation and deliver best business results.

Employees Involvement

Employee engagement can be enhanced by involving employees in creating new rules and organizational decisions, by taking their opinions and feedback. Getting your employees involved in business decisions can help your organization get great business insights.

Review & Reward Employee Progress

Employees like an organization want to work in a happening workplace. And they need to know where they are heading in their career ladder from time to time. As an organization, you will need to build a level of employment engagement where your resources are rewarded for their smart efforts, which help your business perform better. Rewarding your employees through recognizing their hard work can help improve your employment engagement a lot better.